Justin Martyr and Isaiah Exegesis in Judaeo-Christian Borderlines
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho owes its survival to its sharp polemic against Jews. Antti Laato reads it against the grain and shows how deeply Justin's Isaiah exegesis is rooted in Jewish and Jewish-Christian traditions - traditions Justin inherited, sharpened, and turned against the very milieu that produced them.
Antti Laato examines Justin Martyr's interpretation of Isaiah in the Dialogue with Trypho. Isaiah functions as the backbone of Justin's argumentation, and four major themes derived from the book dominate his exegesis: (1) the new covenant established through the Messiah; (2) Jewish unbelief and divine punishment; (3) christological proof texts; and (4) the identity of Christians as the New Israel. Particular attention is given to the extent to which Justin's interpretation of Isaiah depends on earlier Christian and Jewish-Christian traditions, as well as to the ways in which his argumentation reflects earlier Jewish exegetical ideas.
Special attention is paid to Justin's composite quotations. The study demonstrates that he frequently inherited such quotations from earlier Christian tradition. In many cases, Justin intensified traditions that originally expressed more moderate attitudes, transforming them into polemical arguments directed against Jews. His exegesis also reveals substantial dependence on Jewish-Christian traditions concerning the Mosaic Torah, the Messiah, the earthly Jerusalem (which would be rebuilt), baptismal theology, the eschatological conversion of the Jews (which Justin significantly reinterpreted), and the promised Jewish remnant. Justin appropriated a range of Jewish exegetical interpretations of Isaiah that had originally functioned within intra-Jewish discourse and recast them within the context of anti-Jewish polemics.
Ironically, Justin's writings were preserved not because of the Jewish-Christian traditions they transmit, but because of their sharp criticism of Jews. By moving beyond Justin's polemical rhetoric, critical scholarship can recover valuable and often more positive Jewish-Christian traditions that lie behind his interpretation of Isaiah.
Autor*in
Antti Laato
Born 1961; 1988 PhD at Åbo Akademi University; Professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.
Themen in »Justin Martyr and Isaiah Exegesis in Judaeo-Christian Borderlines«
anti-Jewish polemics biblical exegesis Christology Dialogue with Trypho early Christianity Isaiah Isaiah exegesis Jewish Christianity Jewish-Christian relations Justin Martyr Messianism Mosaic Torah new covenant New Israel Second Temple Judaism